UnderHappened

28 - New Home

"No use looking around the house, I presume?"

"You can if you want. I seriously doubt you'll find anything, though. Everybody should've evacuated long ago. And the ones that didn't..." Finn lifts their gaze from the staircase to look at the dummy. "They're down there."

The dummy gives a short, tense nod.

"You can stay if you want," Finn offers. "I don't mind."

The dummy shakes his head vigorously. "No! No way. I've come with you this far. I'm not abandoning you now."

Finn nods, too tired to smile, then turns back to the staircase. They take the first step down.

It's the last stretch.

The staircase leads down into the same long hallways that Toriel's did, except that these hallways are bright and gray, not dark and purple like Toriel's basement. Still, Finn's skin prickles with the deja vu, and their arms start tingling as they turn the last corner, remembering being burned long ago. 

So long ago. How many days has it been? Has it... has it even been a day? It has to have been, but how would Finn know? When was the last time they slept? The last time they ate? Sat down and rested? Did absolutely anything but plod stubbornly on, set on reaching their destination? And now here they are, finally at the End. The destination.

It seems.... unreal.

The deja vu vanishes once Finn reaches the end of the hallways and find that instead of leading to a door, they lead to another open pathway, ornamented with the same unobstructed outside view as the one above. The same turrets and towers, just lower. An outside view. An illusion of fresh air. Ha. There's no fresh air down here. It's underground.

There's an elevator at the end, but Finn guesses the elevator isn't what they should be taking. There's another exit directly across from it, this one a small hallway carved into the wall of the path. Finn can't see much of it, but they guess they should be taking that one.

They can hear noises coming from it. Angry noises. Crashing and clashing and strange bursts of power, muffled by the distance. At times, they can hear a voice as well, but it's too covered by the noises and the distance for Finn to be able to make out what it's saying.

They aren't particularly focused on that right now, however. They know they'll have to deal with it soon. But they're more concentrated on the thing growing out of the ground outside of the hallway, looking in. A large yellow flower on a thick green stem. A flower with a face.

Finn has seen far too many bizarre monsters to feel perplexed at the concept of a flower with a face. They walk up to it, and it turns to face them. They pause.

The flower stares at them for a moment. Then, slowly, it leans backward, and its eyes grow very wide.

"C...Chara?"

Finn is way too tired of monsters assuming that they're some other person. But they're also far too tired to correct it. They simply stare back.

"B-but... then who's..." The flower's eyes flick to the entrance of the hallway, then back again. "Oh. I see." Its face suddenly spreads into a grin, and it relaxes, falling back into its original stance. "This was all part of the plan, wasn't it? You always did like confusing me. Making me doubt myself. Well, congratulations, you did it again. You really had me there. Clever. Very.... clever."

Finn says nothing, so the flower reluctantly continues on, beads of water beginning to appear on the forehead of its round white face.

"Uh... speaking of the plan... you uh... golly, you don't hold a grudge about that, do you? I mean, I really did try my best. And... and I'm your best friend. And stuff. So. You forgive me, right? Of course you do. You always did... most of the time..." The flower somehow performs a nervous gulp, its eyes shifting to the side, then back to Finn's face. "Say... are we, uh.... gonna go do something, like watch the whole Sans versus human child who is definitely not you fight thing, or are you just gonna... keep staring at me... creepily...."

A jolt of panic suddenly runs down Finn's spine. "Sans?"

It seems relieved that Finn has finally spoken. "Yeah, you know Genocide. The Sans fight at the end? Only reason anybody does it nowadays." The flower, despite already being white, somehow visibly pales. "I... I mean... now that you're here... and you're not the human child currently in the Judgement Hall... uh..... I might have... slightly misunderstood a few things? Yeah...."

Finn points to the entrance of the hallway. "Sans is in there right now, fighting the human?"

"Well, sure, but they're almost done," the flower says frankly. "Very determined player. Got past all of his attacks first try. They're in the quiet stage now, y'know, where they wait for him to fall asleep and then strike the final blow. 'Course, I don't see how they're going to do that now, now you're here and not them...." The flower jerks in surprise as Finn takes a step forward. "Wait, where are you going? Chara!"

Finn doesn't listen. They're walking as quickly and as quietly down the dark hallway as they dare, leaving the flower behind. Possibly the dummy as well - they know he prefers to stay away from Sans, and they can't sense him following them. Whatever. They don't care. They know they have to do this themself, anyway. This is the final chapter. The part where they save the world.